Abstract
dc:description.abstractPoly(N-isopropyl-acrylamide) (PNIPAM) is a thermoresponsive polymer with a wide range of biological applications, including drug delivery, biosensing, and tissue engineering. The tunability of the structural and mechanical properties of PNIPAM makes it particularly at- tractive in emulating cell environments and dynamic cytoskeletal deformations. This thesis discusses PNIPAM's properties and applications in different forms i.e., solution, brushes, hydrogels, and surface patterned hydrogels, with specific focus on lithographically patterned substrates coated with PNIPAM films. The scaffolds are investigated for structural and me- chanical responses to thermally driven changes in the PNIPAM hydration states using atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM measurements on our lithographically patterned substrates show that the substrate pattern and coating method enable the fabrication of scaffolds with different topographic and mechanical properties across a wide thermal range. Importantly, these scaffolds exhibit variations in both lateral topography and Young's modulus, rendering them well suited for investigations of differential mechanical stresses experienced by cells and cell membranes.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Master of Science
- Level thesis:degree_level
- masters
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Physics
- Department dc:contributor.department
- Physics
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Virginia Tech
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2022
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Chen, Chi
- Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
-
- Ashkar, Rana
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- Kaplan, Cihan Nadir
- Nguyen, Vinh
Subjects
dc:subject × 5Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
- Licence dc:rights.uri
- Language dc:language.iso
- en
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Dc Identifier Other
- vt_gsexam:35425
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/111536